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The People News, a free newspaper serving Cleveland Tennessee (TN) and Bradley County Tennessee (Tn).
Of Bradley County Tn.
APRIL 2004
The People News, a free newspaper serving Cleveland and Bradley County Tn.
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Japanese Navy Fighter Seaplane
Bombs Oregon Forest
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Bizarre, Fascinating, and Wacky World War I & ll Secrets.
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by Cecil Owen
On September 9, 1942, a Japanese submarine surfaced cautiously a few miles from Cape Blanco Light House. This was close to Port Oxford, Oregon, about 60 miles from the California-Oregon border. The number on her hull was 1-25 and her skipper was Commander Meiji Tagami. This was a fleet-class type BI Submarine, whose home base was Yokusuka, Japan. Their mission was to raise havoc and cause panic along the Pacific Coast of the United States of America. It was well-suited for such a long range mission, with a 16,000 mile range. It was around 350 feet long and weighed 3,233 tons fully loaded. It was armed with six 21 inch torpedo tubes and a 5.5 inch deck gun. After taking 25 days to cross the Pacific Ocean, Commander Tagami and his crew were looking forward to launching a new secret weapon. On the fore deck of the submarine was a hangar for a disassembled seaplane. This single engine airplane could be launched by a deck catapult and then picked up by a crane. (of course a seaplane has pontoons to enable it to land on the water.) This was the Yokosuka E14Y1, which carried a two man crew. Nicknamed the "Glen" by the U.S. It was armed with one machine gun and two 170 lb. bombs. The seaplane was to be assembled, launched off the American coast and flown inland. Then it would drop Incendiaries (fire bombs) among the giant forests of the Pacific Northwest. This would trigger a vast firestorm that would cause panic and undermine American morale. This might even cause us to ask for a peace settlement.
As soon as the sub had surfaced, airplane mechanics rushed to assemble the E14Y1. Then Warrant Officer Nobuo Fujita and his observer climbed aboard and were shot skyward by the catapult. They flew 50 miles inland, until they were over the middle of the Siskiyou National Forest. Everything was concealed in fog, so it was impossible to see their bombs drop. Warrant Officer Fujita and his crew mate were very jubilant as they flew back. Soon
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we will be able to see a very large bonfire in the forest, they shouted. Little did they know, it was so ... damp below, that not a single spark ignited!!
Fujita contacted 1-25 by radio, resurface quickly, in 10 minutes to hoist them back on board. Returning to the rendezvous site, the seaplane landed and was quickly
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The Japanese B1 Class Submarine, I-25.
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retrieved. It was disassembled again and stowed away, just as the sub was spotted by a U.S. patrol plane. It attacked and bombed 1-25 as it crash dived for safety. The sub managed to escape with only minor damage from a bomb's near miss. The sub's skipper, Commander Tagami was a very daring person, he sought refuge for his submarine by taking it into the Port Oxford Harbor. He took it to the bottom and lay it there motionless for two days, while U.S. airplanes and warships searched the coastal water offshore. Finally, the search was called off and 1-25 slipped quietly out of the harbor.
On their last mission, in June, 1-25 had surfaced one night off the mouth of the Columbia River. There they shelled the Coastal Defenses of Fort Stevens, Washington, which caused a local panic. And now that the official
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mission was over, the skipper prowled down the shoreline toward California. On October 5, 1942, the Shell Oil Company had a tanker, the SS Camden, sailing from San Predo, California to Seattle, Washington. The periscope of 1-25 revealed the oil tanker Camden dead ahead. Commander Tagami fired two torpedoes, which left the ship dead in the water. Thinking it was about to sink, the crew abandoned ship. The 1-25 chalked up a sinking, but later the ship was taken under tow for five days. Then it caught on fire and sank anyway - close to Gray's Harbor, Washington. While on the same evening, Commander Tagami
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The Yokosuka E14Y1 that bombed the Oregon forest.
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had his sights on another oil tanker, the SS Larry Dohenny. One torpedo exploded amid-ship and down she sank quickly. This made the crew of 1-25 very joyful as they celebrated their success. Little did they know that would be the last American ship lost on the Pacific Coast for the rest of W.W.II!! The Japanese Imperial Navy Submarine 1-25 was sunk later on during the war,
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but several of the crew had been transferred to other duties and so survived the war.
In 1954, Warrant Officer Nobuo Fujita, the pilot of the seaplane, published the saga 1-25's activities along the Pacific US Coast. What a huge bonfire it would have been if their plan had succeeded. Millions of acres of prime timber would have gone up in smoke, and several thousand homes also.
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The E14Y1 ready for launch on the I-25 Submarine.
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We can thank the good Lord that it did not happen.
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